Cosa leggere questa estate?

Improvvise condizioni di maltempo hanno interrotto lo streaming in diretta dalla cattedrale di San Giorgio di Città del Capo dove si tenevano i funerali del compianto Louis Tebogo Moholo-Moholo. La parte effettivamente trasmessa, con alcuni degli interventi - anche musicali - che si sono susseguiti nel corso della cerimonia di sabato scorso, è ora conservata su YT. Gli omaggi sono poi proseguiti il giorno dopo a Langa in forma di concerto in onore del defunto. Molti certamente ne seguiranno nelle settimane e mesi a venire: primo ad essere annunciato è quello del 27 agosto a Londra, al 100 Club, dove ci saranno tra gli altri Claude Deppa, Alexander Hawkins, Jason Yarde, Evan Parker, John Edwards e Shabaka Hutchings.

https://ogunrecording.co.uk/farewell-to-louis

Esce finalmente in versione italiana uno dei testi più importanti di Bob Ostertag, Creative Life (University of Illinois Press, 2019), raccolta di saggi e analisi che contengono attente riflessioni su arte d'avanguardia e trasformazioni politiche, denuncia sociale e stereotipi di genere, tecnologia e utilizzo dei media, controllo e repressione, storie di giornalismo d'assalto e militarismo sfrenato in specifiche aree di guerra (El Salvador, Nicaragua, Serbia), oltre che su composizione, improvvisazione, computer music e copyright. I capitoli principali riguardano arte e politica, Centro America e Balcani, queers e drag queens, musica e rivoluzione tecnologica, e c'è anche quel famoso scritto con cui nella seconda metà degli anni Duemila Ostertag accompagnò la diffusione in download gratuito di gran parte delle proprie musiche ('The Professional Suicide of a Recording Musician'). Ne ha meritoriamente curato la pubblicazione per Edizioni Colibrì Giuseppe Aiello, firmando un saggio introduttivo, inserendo aggiornamenti alle note biografiche e discografiche e promuovendo - in accordo con l'autore - il sottotitolo originale a titolo principale: Musica, politica, gente e macchine.

In this eloquent and passionate volume, Bob Ostertag explores the common ground and points of friction among music, creativity, politics, culture, and technology. In terrain ranging from the guerrilla underground in El Salvador's civil war to the drag queen underground in San Francisco and New York, these essays combine journalism and autobiography to explore fundamental questions of what art is and what role it can occupy in a violent and fragmented world, a world in which daily events compromise the universality toward which art strives. Drawing on his intimate engagement with political conflict in Latin America and the Balkans, Ostertag identifies an art of "insurgent politics" that struggles to expand the parameters of the physical and social world. He also discusses his innovative collaborations with major modern performers, filmmakers, and artists around the world. Part memoir, part journalism, and part aesthetic manifesto, Creative Life is a dazzling set of writings from a musical artist who has worked on the cutting edge of new music for thirty years.

https://bobostertag.com
https://www.facebook.com/bob.ostertag
https://www.colibriedizioni.it

Non è nuova, anzi è un po' il segreto di Pulcinella, ma tra i suoi poteri Superman ha anche quel potere. E lo invoca Dave Newhouse, per il Pride 2025. Büszkeség!

https://tinyurl.com/SupermansNewPower

Tre nuovi brani strumentali realizzati nei giorni scorsi da Bob Drake con chitarre acustiche a sei e dodici corde, in modo non dissimile da certe sue sessioni in live streaming su Twitch, formano ora un breve album affidato a Bandcamp: Splendens Giganteum. 

"An EP featuring a suite of three solo acoustic guitar pieces, developed over the past year. Tracks 1 and 3 are six-string guitar, track 2 is twelve-string. Recorded the 14th, 15th and 16th of June 2025, using a pair of Yasushi Utsunomia's BAROm1 microphones. Written, performed and recorded by BD, I also made the mixed-media cover object."

https://bdstudio.bandcamp.com/album/splendens-giganteum

E' invece pronto e già in distribuzione il libro di Jean-Louis Tallon Terry Riley, figure libre, edito a Marsiglia dall'eccellente Le mot et le reste.

Du compositeur américain Terry Riley, on connaît surtout In C, pièce pionnière de musique répétitive qui, depuis sa création, jouit d’une popularité internationale incontestée. In C est néanmoins l’arbre qui cache la forêt d’une oeuvre immense et plurielle à l’intersection du minimalisme, du jazz, du blues, del’électronique et de la transe, entre orient et occident. Au premier rang, l’album A Rainbow in Curved Air, qui influença notamment Mike Oldfield, Pete Townshend ou Soft Machine, mais également The Harp of New Albion, sans oublier la vingtaine de quatuors à cordes écrits pour le Kronos Quartet depuis 1980. Ainsi dans Terry Riley, figure libre, Jean-Louis Tallon dessine la trajectoire biographique et esthétique d’un compositeur qui occupe aujourd’hui une place fondatrice dans l’histoire de la musique.

https://lemotetlereste.com/musiques/terryriley

Éditions Le mot et le reste
BP 21 13209 Marseille Cedex 20
Tél. communication : 04 91 73 41 88
Tél. éditorial : 04 91 84 09 74
direction@lemotetlereste.com

Non è ancora disponibile - lo sarà tra un paio di mesi - ma anche il semplice annuncio concorre in qualche modo ai festeggiamenti di compleanno del Nostro attualmente in corso: è The Columbia Recordings, box contenente gli album che Terry Riley registrò per l'etichetta newyorkese a cavallo tra gli anni Sessanta e Settanta, ovvero In C (1968), A Rainbow in Curved Air (1969), Church of Anthrax (1971, con John Cale) e successivamente Shri Camel (1980). Lavori innovativi e assai influenti - soprattutto i primi due, divenuti di importanza storica - qui accompagnati da documenti fotografici inediti e da diversi contributi scritti tra cui quelli di protagonisti diretti e testimoni esperti quali David Behrman e Thomas M. Welsh.

A deluxe 4-CD box set bringing together the seminal Columbia recordings of Terry Riley. A landmark reissue from one of the most pivotal figures in 20th-century music. The Columbia Recordings brings together the four seminal albums that Terry Riley created for Columbia Masterworks between 1968 and 1980 - a body of work that redefined the possibilities of minimalism, electronic music, and compositional freedom. Each title marks a critical moment not only in Riley’s evolution but in the wider cultural shift of American music: where avant-garde practice collided with high-fidelity production, and radical sonic ideas met mass distribution. Lovingly remastered and presented with extensive archival material this box set captures Riley at his most transformative, when the pulse of innovation was inseparable from spiritual and sonic exploration. In C alone marked a revolution, influencing contemporaries like Steve Reich, Philip Glass, and La Monte Young, while A Rainbow in Curved Air pointed the way toward ambient, psychedelia, and proto-electronica. Church of Anthrax opened new dialogues between experimentalism and rock, and Shri Camel explored Indian tuning systems through digital delay, yielding one of Riley’s most refined long-form works. In addition to all four complete recordings and rarely seen archival photographs from recording sessions in Columbia’s fabled 30th Street Studios in Manhattan, the box set also includes a 50-page booklet featuring first-hand reflections from David Behrman, the original producer of In C and A Rainbow in Curved Air; and an essay by Thomas M. Welsh, Terry Riley’s longtime manager and archivist; and reprints of all essays and notes from the original vinyl releases. Released as Riley approaches his 90th birthday, The Columbia Recordings is not just a retrospective, but a celebration of music’s power to build new worlds - and to change the one we live in.

https://www.soundohm.com/the-columbia-recordings

Compie oggi novant'anni il grande Terry Riley, e dopo i festeggiamenti londinesi del mese scorso - con l'ensemble Band on a Can in formazione regolare ed estesa alle prese con i super-classici A Rainbow in Curved Air e In C - anche New York si appresta a celebrare l'evento con uno speciale concerto in programma questa sera al Roulette, dove saranno eseguiti il recentissimo The Holy Liftoff nella versione per solo flauto di Claire Chase e nuovamente In C con gran numero di musicisti coinvolti (più di una quarantina). Domani invece sarà la volta del Kronos Quartet, che è riuscito a convincere il compositore a raggiungerli a Kanagawa da Yamanashi, sua residenza da qualche anno, per presenziare alla prima esecuzione in Giappone dello splendido Sun Rings, ciclo multimediale in parte commissionato dalla Nasa per quartetto d'archi, coro, immagini e suoni captati dallo spazio concessi dal Dipartimento di fisica e astronomia dell'Università dell'Iowa. Auguri, Maestro!

https://thebluemoment.com/rainbows-for-terry-riley
https://roulette.org/terry-riley-90th-birthday-in-c-the-holy-liftoff
https://kronosquartet.org/yokohama-japan-3

Nelle intenzioni di allora la serie doveva comprendere 10 LP con ciascun lato di ciascun vinile dedicato a un diverso autore americano di fama e di prestigio nel proprio ambito musicale, puntando per ogni abbinamento all'effetto della differenza e del contrasto esaltati dallo straniamento del metodo Residents. Ci si attendevano Harry Partch e Harry Nilsson, Ray Charles e Sun Ra, Smokey Robinson e Bob Dylan, Charles Ives e Stevie Wonder, Catptain Beefheart, Moondog e Barry White, Scott Joplin e Brian Wilson. Invece per vari motivi - non ultimi il rivoluzionario avvento del compact disc e l'improvvisa scomparsa nel 1987 di Philip Charles Lithman, cioè Snakefinger - il progetto si fermò dopo solo due volumi, protagonisti George Gershwin e James Brown (George & James, 1984) e John Philip Sousa e Hank Williams (Stars & Hank Forever, 1986). La collezione retrospettiva pREServed li raccoglie ora entrambi assieme a un buon numero di ulteriori brani rivisti, ritoccati, decomposti/ricomposti, inediti o poco utilizzati: The Residents' American Composers Series.

Feeling burned out on underground epics after the disastrous Mole Show tour, The Residents decided to postpone work on Part Three of the Mole Trilogy. But they needed a project, and Ralph Records said they had to make some money, an all but foreign concept for a band both lauded and dismissed for its doggedly uncommercial approach to the music business. Typically, after a brief period of reflection, the group decided to go in two directions, both familiar, but in different ways. In retrospect, it was no surprise that The Residents moved back toward the comfort and success they had achieved reinterpreting the music of other composers but, unexpectedly, the new project was in some ways even more extravagant than the overly ambitious Mole Trilogy. Taking the Residential concept of "music about music" to its logical extreme, the band threw itself into a serious, long-term project grandiosely titled The American Composers Series.

Essentially, the concept was a musical exploration of various American composers, two at a time, juxtaposing one against the other, with each featured on opposite sides of an LP. The band would first deconstruct the music then rebuild it around the Residential values of naivete, atonal innocence and playful pretense. By breaking break down the mythology surrounding the celebrated composers and reducing the music to its essence, The Residents purposefully created the lofty goal of imposing their own Theory of Obscurity on other famous musicians. Satisfied with their new direction, the group then announced a goal of interpreting twenty different composers on ten albums over a period of sixteen years, from 1984 to 2001. The first album, George & James, interpreted the music of George Gershwin and James Brown. The band followed this with John Philip Sousa and Hank Williams on Stars & Hank Forever. Audaciously appropriating the intro of Michael Jackson's Billie Jean, the band released a single based on Williams's 'Kaw-Liga," which shockingly sold in the six figures, making The American Composers Series a huge financial success for The Residents. The third album in the series was tentatively titled The Trouble with Harrys, featuring the music of Harry Partch and Harry Nilsson, but The Residents unexpectedly abandoned the project in 1986. As LPs lost sales to CDs, the music business was changing; in addition, despite the success of Kaw-Liga, music publishing rights - the fees paid to composers - were getting more expensive. Meanwhile it took longer to record CDs, which held 50-75% more music than LPs, and finally, part of the charm of series was its juxtaposition of one composer against another, a non-existent feature on one sided CDs. In addition the sales of Ralph's other groups were poor. Consequently, the answer to this losing equation was touring so The Residents reluctantly ended the American Composers series and turned their efforts to Cube-E, arguably, their most successful tour.

https://residents.com
https://meettheresidents.fandom.com
https://www.cherryred.co.uk

Rotters di tutto il mondo, unitevi!

Per l'editrice tedesca Wolke, responsabile di eccellenti pubblicazioni sui maggiori autori storici e contemporanei del free jazz e dell'improvvisazione, è pronto ora anche nella versione in lingua inglese il libro Dynamic Vibrations-Played with Hands and Feet - uscito come Dynamische Schwingungen nel 2021- che raccoglie in modo tematico, aperto e creativo un ampio numero di composizioni e riflessioni di Sven-Åke Johansson, con varietà di suoi testi, materiali, strutture poetiche, interviste, aforismi, progetti, schizzi e disegni. La preparazione del prezioso volume è frutto del lavoro di Thomas Groetz e Bastian Zimmermann condotto assieme allo stesso Johansson.

Sven-Åke Johansson steht einzigartig da in einer Zwischenposition zwischen Free Music, klassischem Swing-Jazz, Experiment, Komposition, Music Performance, musikalischem Bühnenspiel, Sprach-/Sprech-/Singkunst und bildender Kunst. Das vorliegende Buch ist eine umfangreiche Zusammenstellung nicht nur der Kompositionen und der realisierten sowie nicht realisierten Konzepte, sondern auch der erläuternden Zeichnungen, der Skizzen und vielseitigen Texte des 1943 in Mariestad geborenen schwedischen Musikers. Da in seiner künstlerischen Praxis die Grenzen zwischen den einzelnen Gattungen fließend sind, wurde auf eine Schwerpunktbildung unterschiedlicher Textsorten verzichtet. Während sich Johanssons Musik zwischen akustischen Readymades, Bruitismus, Solostücken, freien Formationen, Jazz-Combos und Musiktheater auffächert, ist auch einem Großteil seiner Texte schwerlich eine abgezirkelte Identität zuzuschreiben; so sind Werktexte, die Kompositionen und Konzepte erläutern, zugleich eigensinnige sprachpoetische Formungen. Lyrik und Aphorismen haben sich zu Liedtexten entwickelt, aber auch andersherum: Stimmliche Deklamationen, die im instrumentalen Instant Composing auftauchen, finden eine fixierte Form als eigenständige Poesie. Die lebendige Durchmischung aus unterschiedlichem Material, die dieses Buch anbietet, wird jedoch nicht ungeordnet, sondern in thematischen Verklammerungen präsentiert. Das Buch ist ein Künstlerbuch und ein kuratierter Materialband, eine umfangreiche Dokumentation der Kompositionen und musikalischen Konzepte sowie der relevanten Texte von Sven-Åke Johansson. Hinzu kommen eine Reihe von Interviews, die nicht nur seinen eigenwilligen Denk- und Sprachduktus abbilden, sondern vielfältige Erläuterungen zu einem Großteil der im Buch enthaltenen Kompositionen und Stücke bereitstellen.

https://www.wolke-verlag.de/dynamic-vibrations
https://www.wolke-verlag.de/dynamische-schwingungen
https://www.wolke-verlag.de/johan_inhalt.pdf
https://www.facebook.com/wolkeverlag

Luogo principale dove cercare e rinvenire notizie e documenti riguardanti l'intensissima attività in campo musicale e artistico del compianto Sven-Åke Johansson (1943-2025) è senz'altro il SÅJ Archiv, aggiornato e ricco di riferimenti a pubblicazioni, mostre, performance di varia natura, lavori per la radio, per il cinema e per il teatro musicale, con recensioni, poster, vari scritti e gallerie fotografiche. La produzione musicale è proposta in ordine cronologico inverso con singole schede informative da cui si può procedere all'acquisto di copie in LP o CD eventualmente disponibili in formato fisico. Per il formato digitale è invece quasi d'obbligo rivolgersi a Bandcamp, dove sono presenti innumerevoli opere inedite, rare, semi-ufficiali e fuori catalogo. 

Per orientarsi si possono seguire le indicazioni di Martin Schray, così come suggerite tramite The Free Jazz Collective: "Sven-Åke Johansson’s oeuvre is full of outstanding music, music that has helped to define improvised music in the last 60 years. For Adolphe Sax (BRÖ / FMP 1967) and Machine Gun (BRÖ 1968 / FMP 1972) belong to the European free jazz canon. His duo recordings with Alexander von Schlippenbach on FMP are superb: if you ask me I would choose Live at The Quartier Latin (1976), Kung Bore (1978), Drive (1981) and most of all Live 1976/77 (2001). His duo with saxophonist/clarinetist/accordionist Rüdiger Carl shows a different musical side of him,“Intermezzo für zwei Akkordeons“ on Fünfundreissigvierzig (FMP, 1986) is folk music in a weird and wonderful sense. With Schlippenbach, Carl and Jay Oliver on bass he recorded jazz classics, another one of his unexpected interests. Night and Day (FMP, 1985) is pure joy and a bow to the classics of the genre. A lesser known album is E.M.T.’s Canadian Cup Of Coffee (FMP/SAJ, 1974) with Alfred Harth on saxophones and clarinets and Nicole van den Plaas on piano, a very beautiful and humorous recording. The Bergisch-Brandenburgisches Quartet with Hans Reichel, Rüdiger Carl and Ernst Ludwig Petrowsky Free Postmodernism - BBQ with Fred Frith - USA, 1982 (SAJ, 2020) was only released a few years ago, but especially this album is a great discovery from the wild and outer fringes of free jazz at the beginning of the 1980s. Of his newer releases, Stumps (Ni-Vu-Ni-Connu, 2022) with Pierre Borel on sax, Axel Dörner on trumpet, Joel Grip on bass, and Simon Sieger on piano is worth being mentioned. For each track the “Stumps“ theme is repeated four times, forward then backward, a typical Johansson idea. Also, Rotations (Trost, 2025), his trio with Ignaz Schick (turntables) and Franz Hautzinger (trumpet) is a nice summary of Johansson’s interest in sound exploration. Finally, I’ve always liked his collaboration with Jan Jelinek, maybe because it’s very unusual for the man’s music (then again, the word “unusual“ does not really fit for Johansson’s art). Puls-Plus-Puls Edition Moers (Moers Record Store Schallplatten, 2021) is my favorite of the two albums they released."

http://www.sven-akejohansson.com
https://saj-rec.bandcamp.com

  

Dynamische Schwingungen
Sven-Åke Johansson (1943-2025)

La sua pubblicazione era annunciata e già prevista ufficialmente tra un mese, ora diventa ancor più urgente e necessaria: è la registrazione inedita del concerto che Larry Stabbins, Keith Tippett e Louis Moholo-Moholo tennero a Foggia al Conservatorio di Musica 'Umberto Giordano' il 23 novembre 1985, a tre anni esatti dalle esplosive sessioni del 1982 al Total Music Meeting di Berlino documentate in Tern. L'iniziativa è della Ogun: Live in Foggia.

It's sad to know that Louis won't be around to see the release of this CD. But it acts as a tribute to the master drummer and is a powerful record of his ability, sensitivity and listening in a context that constantly throws up new posers for all three. The album will be released on July 25th, but you can pre-order now. Recorded in Italy in 1985, this is a valuable record of a unique trio playing at the very top of their game. Larry Stabbins, after years of playing with many of the greatest improvising musicians of the 60s and 70s (John Stevens, Chris McGregor, Keith Tippett, Mike Westbrook, Tony Oxley etc) had recently exploded onto the pop world with the bands Weekend and Working Week and was quite famous in Italy. Not to be outdone, Louis Moholo-Moholo turned up to this gig in full ‘warpaint’ and all three play like the clappers. Both Louis and Keith are in their prime here, and the level of playing by all three is off the scale.

https://ogun3.bandcamp.com/live-in-foggia

Tra i primi a ricordare pubblicamente Louis Moholo ci sono Richard Williams e Mike Westbrook, rispettivamente in The Blue Moment ('The Last of the Blue Notes') e in WestbrookJazz Notice Board ('Blue Notes for Moholo'), e con loro anche Steve Beresford, Alexander Hawkins, Roberto Ottaviano, Riccardo Bergerone, Annie Whitehead, Luciano Rossetti, Marcello Lorrai, Martin Schray, Olie Brice e Noël Akchoté, ciascuno tramite le proprie reti e i propri contatti. E c'è soprattutto il comunicato dei famigliari ('Family Statement on the passing of Tebogo Louis Moholo-Moholo: 13 June 2025'), messo in circolazione con una nota di gratitudine per quanti stanno ovunque rendendo omaggio al compianto 'Bra Tebza'.

"It is with deep sorrow that we announce the passing of our beloved Tebogo Louis Moholo-Moholo, who departed this world on Friday, 13 June 2025, at the age of 85, after being ill for a few years. ‘Bra Louis’ as he was affectionately referred to was born on 10 March 1940 in Langa in Cape Town, South Africa. He is considered as one of the most important jazz drummers in South Africa, known for his contribution in furthering and developing the form of free jazz. He is respected throughout the world through his time in exile in London and through playing with the iconic jazz group The Blue Notes. 

Louis was more than a pioneering musician - he was a mentor and a friend. As a drummer, composer, and fearless voice for artistic freedom, Louis inspired generations through his groundbreaking contributions to South African and global jazz. From the townships of Cape Town to the stages of London and beyond, his rhythms spoke of resistance, liberation, and the boundless power of creativity. He was the last surviving member of The Blue Notes, a group that courageously took their music into exile during apartheid, and became a beacon for cultural expression and solidarity through jazz. His artistry and spirit were not just heard, but felt deeply across the world.

We are grateful for the love and support that has already begun to pour in from across the globe. Louis’ life was a gift to all who knew him and to all who felt the impact of his music. Further details regarding funeral arrangements will be shared in due course."

https://www.facebook.com/BraTebza

    

Spirits Rejoice!
(Louis Moholo-Moholo, 1940-2025)

Il genio artistico e le vicende umane di Brian Wilson sono state raccontate più e più volte in dichiarazioni, interviste, libri e film, con reperti di valore confusi in una messe di documenti apocrifi, testimonianze parziali e spesso malevole, biografie (e autobiografie) incomplete o reticenti. Molto altro di certo seguirà, ma intanto - dopo Beautiful Dreamer e due versioni di God Only Knows - torna a dire la sua il super esperto David Leaf, concentrandosi sull'opus magnum Smile, per Omnibus Press. Sottotitolo: The Rise, Fall & Resurrection of Brian Wilson.

Drawing upon the author’s in-depth interviews with Brian, his collaborator Van Dyke Parks, Brian’s band (especially Darian Sahanaja), close friends, family, and so many others who were part of the trip, David Leaf tells how Brian Wilson rose to greatness, almost fell off the edge of the earth, then unexpectedly came back to reclaim his place as one of the most influential musicians of the twentieth century. There are two Beach Boys narratives. One is about a family band and their greatest hits, an amazing body of work the group primarily recorded between 1962 and 1966. Those records, composed, arranged and produced by Brian Wilson, have brought joy to the world for over six decades. This book is the other story.

https://www.brianwilson.com
https://www.leafprod.com

In molti hanno rincorso per anni, e spesso inutilmente, Smile. Per poi rincuorarsi con Orange Crate Art. Amando sempre e soprattutto Pet Sounds. Come lui per primo, Brian Wilson: "I love the whole Pet Sounds record. I got a full vision out of it in the studio. After that, I said to myself that I had completed the greatest album I will ever produce. I knew it. It was a spiritual record. I wanted to grow musically, to expand our horizons and do something that people would love, and I did it."

https://www.brianwilson.com

  

Smile

(Brian Wilson, 1942-2025)

A tu per tu con Susan Alcorn spese a suo tempo un piacevole pomeriggio Eugene Chadbourne, come risulta dalle registrazioni di An Afternoon in Austin... or Country Music for Harmolodic Souls, uscite nel 2002 in un cd (ora assai raro) prodotto a Woodstock dall'etichetta Boxholder Records, la stessa che pubblicò anche i due omaggi a Doug Sahm - ma anche a Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard, Ernest Tubb e Malvina Reynolds - di Chadbourne con Alcorn in quartetto e quintetto. Quelle sessioni texane, all'epoca tra le sue preferite, il Nostro le stampò successivamente in proprio e le distribuì a modo suo in due cd-r come Texasock. Dentro un calzino.

https://eugenechadbourne.com/susan-alcorn-ec-afternoon-austin

Dedicato a Susan Alcorn è anche l'album che Mike Cooper ha appena pubblicato per Room40, Eternal Equinox, una decina di brani registrati a Valencia l'anno scorso in affascinante equilibrio tra improvvisazione e composizione: "These pieces started out as simple improvisations on my virtual pedal steel inspired by the compositions of Kevin Good played by pedal steel guitar player Matt Sargent on their record Trails. Simple melodic minimalistic pieces. Eventually as I listened back to my improvisations other textures and timbre suggested themselves and more complex compositions came to light."

https://room40.bandcamp.com/album/eternal-equinox

"For a long time, Susan Alcorn lived a double life. At night, she would play in dance halls and honky-tonks around Houston, Texas; during the day, she would hole up by herself to study avant-garde jazz and free improvisation. Her chosen instrument, the pedal steel guitar, was associated with country and western and virtually unheard of in other genres. Alcorn kept her professional performances separate from her private obsessions until, by chance, the roles were reversed. By the time of her passing in January of 2025, she had reinvented both herself and her instrument, proving that the pedal steel could be adapted into any style of music." Così inizia il ritratto che Matthew Blackwell traccia di Susan Alcorn (1953-2025) a beneficio dei visitatori di Bandcamp, suggerendo (e incoraggiando) un primo percorso nella sua discografia: Susan Alcorn’s Revolutionary Pedal Steel.

https://susanalcorn1.bandcamp.com

Notizia invece non buona per gli appassionati dei Residents è la prematura conclusione delle pubblicazioni di Melodic Virtue, editrice con sede nell'Indiana (Stati Uniti) responsabile dei due magnifici volumi della serie cronologica A Sight For Sore Eyes usciti nel 2022 e 2023 contenenti moltissimi materiali grafici e iconografici originali tratti dagli archivi della Cryptic Corporation. Il titolare Aaron Tanner proseguirà le proprie attività in altra forma e senza interrompere del tutto i rapporti con il gruppo, ma di certo i due ulteriori volumi previsti e promessi subiranno forti ritardi (o uno stop definitivo).

https://meettheresidents.fandom.com/wiki/Melodic_Virtue

Altra ottima notizia per gli appassionati dei Residents è la ripubblicazione di GOD O: Music for a Gallery Opening, l'album solista - il suo primo - del compianto Hardy Fox (1945-2018) contenente le musiche da lui create per l'inaugurazione di una mostra di opere dell'amico/collega Homer Flynn, diffuse in due riprese nel 2012 utilizzando lo pseudonimo Charles Bobuck. Walter Robotka, titolare della viennese Klanggalerie, ne ha meritoriamente prodotto una versione in due cd arricchita di inediti e rielaborazioni di altri brani targati Bobuck solo in parte già noti, God Damn Chickens e Gosh Darn Chickens.

GOD-O: Music for a Gallery Opening (later reissued as GOD O: Music for a Gallery Opening) is the first solo album by Charles Bobuck, long-time keyboardist and composer for The Residents, featuring a forty minute suite recorded in 2011 for the opening night of an exhibition of artwork by Homer Flynn at Johansson Projects in Oakland, California. It was released via The Residents' online music platform Robot Selling Device on March 14th 2012, and later as an expanded CD release by The Cryptic Corporation. On May 20th 2025, GOD O was reissued by Klanggalerie in a deluxe two CD package featuring a previously unheard thirty minute version of God Damn Chickens, as well as reworked versions of the songs which had previously been released on the 2012 digital EP Gosh Darn Chickens.

https://www.klanggalerie.com/gg480

Probabilmente è il loro album più famoso - opera assolutamente originale, accompagnata all'epoca (1979) da misteriosissimi retroscena e al contempo da un'immagine pubblica strepitosa - eppure in oltre 45 anni non lo hanno mai eseguito dal vivo per intero. Succederà finalmente oggi pomeriggio a Los Angeles - tumulti e scontri cittadini permettendo, in crescente opposizione ai violenti raid anti-migranti - al festival Exotikon interamente dedicato all'Alieno e al Bizzarro. Protagonisti i Residents in persona: Eskimo.

Created over a period of three years (work began shortly after The Third Reich 'N' Roll was released), Eskimo was unlike anything anyone had heard before. Instead of an album made up of songs, The Residents produced a series of acoustic landscapes: each track is the sound of a story taking place, rather than the traditional song telling a story. The idea for the album is supposed to have come from the band's former collaborator, the Mysterious N. Senada, who had disappeared in the early 70s to search for music among the Eskimos (legend has it that he re-appeared during the making of the album with a tape of sound samples and a jar of arctic air to record). The Residents teamed up with drummer Chris Cutler and Don Preston (formerly a keyboard player for Frank Zappa's Mothers of Invention), as well as their regular collaborator, Snakefinger. Inspired by such pieces of pop culture as the famous Santa Claus Coca-Cola ads, The Residents set about inventing an anthropological background for their Eskimos which didn't bear much resemblance to reality, but instead was based on pop perceptions of the northern peoples (nevertheless, the USSR release was classified as a "cultural documentary"). Each track relates a story which was told in writing on the inside of the album's gatefold cover. The stories are progressively more complex and dig deeper into the fictional Eskimo culture, starting with a simple Walrus Hunt and ending with a confrontation with the spirit world and a Festival of Death celebrating the end of the six-month night. The album shows, as did the mini-ballet Six Things to a Cycle on Fingerprince, the influence of Harry Partch. Like Partch, The Residents invented their own language and instruments. Most of the fake Eskimo tongue is made up of highly distorted English and is sung while breathing in to give it an alien texture. As the album progresses you can hear the slow invasion of American culture into the Eskimo lives as the Eskimo's spiritual leader, the Angakok, leads them in chants whose nonsense language becomes corrupted with phrases such as "Coca-Cola Adds Life".

Eskimo almost didn't happen. When Duck Stab turned into a big success, the Cryptic Corporation started to promote it heavily. The Residents became worried that the business may have been moving too quickly - not to mention the possibility that the promotions might endanger their anonymity. The Residents were already somewhat afraid that Eskimo might turn out to be dull and pretentious so they grabbed master tapes and disappeared. Desperate for some material to release (the band disappeared the day before the tapes were to go to pressing), the Cryptics pulled an old master tape off of the shelves and released that instead. It was an unnamed album which was never meant to be released, dubbed Not Available by the Corporation. It turned out that the group had flown to England and left the tapes with Chris Cutler. John Kennedy and Jay Clem of the Cryptic Corporation flew over to collect the tapes, which Cutler had been keeping at the National Safe Deposit Box Company in London. The New Wave press, which had become rather caught up in The Residents after Duck Stab, were quite keen on the whole "disappearing Residents" story, so the Corporation milked the event for its publicity value, playing up the mystery of The Residents' disappearance and releasing press photos of the tape exchange. The Residents themselves weren't in England. They had apparently gone on to Japan, then reappeared in San Francisco shortly after the tapes were recovered. On their return, the Cryptic Corporation presented them with a new 16-track recording studio as an apology for the misunderstanding. To celebrate the reunion, the band used their new toy to record Santa Dog '78, which, along with the original Santa Dog was given away free as a single to everyone on the Ralph Records mailing list as a Christmas gift in a package which included the story of the disappearance.

When it finally did come out, Eskimo had one other eye-catching feature: it had the first cover featuring the Residents' newest costumes, the Eyeball heads. Originally the band had wanted silver spheres reflecting the arctic mists, but that idea proved impractical. The eye-heads, second choices though they were, turned out to be a powerful image: the costumes were so incredibly identifiable that they became the trademark look for the band. In spite of The Residents' fears about possible pretentiousness, Eskimo was a huge critical success. The music press in the UK loved it, hailing it as a huge milestone in the new music. Sales were phenomenal for an independent, underground album. The first pressing of 10,000 copies on snow-white vinyl sold out quickly. The adulation was so strong, in fact, that the band was afraid that their Eyeball-heads might get swollen from all the praise. To forestall this the band spoofed their own albums by creating a disco version called Diskomo. Released as a single, this instrumental work has gone through a number of revisions over its history.

https://youtu.be/xVpKtE5zoCY

Aria di festa oggi anche per Richard Sinclair, che invita amici vicini e lontani ad unirsi al cin cin per i suoi 77 anni in allegra compagnia - anche da remoto, se non personalmente in Valle d'Itria - e nel contempo celebrare l'uscita del secondo volume di suoi inediti con la Caravan of Dreams: Live 91-93. Cheers!

https://richardsinclairsongs.bandcamp.com/live-91-93

E di anni ne avrebbe compiuti oggi novanta Misha Mengelberg (1935-2017): per ricordarlo si tiene stasera uno speciale concerto dell'ICP Orchestra al culmine di un intero ciclo di eventi celebrati ad Amsterdam in suo nome, Misha Kosmos Festival.

Misha Mengelberg (Kiev, 5 June 1935), leader of the Instant Composers Pool Orchestra, is a trickster figure in Dutch composing and international improvised music: a philosophical thinker about musical issues who doesn’t take himself seriously, but who helped bring about government subsidies for composed and improvised music (which he dubbed ‘instant composition’) in the Netherlands in the 1960s and 70s. He has brought compositional procedures to improvised music with ICP, and quasi-improvised insubordination to his composing. As jazz pianist, he draws on early idols Thelonious Monk (an unhurried gait, dense impacted chords) and Herbie Nichols (harmonies that subvert traditional patterns). In the late 1960s Mengelberg helped develop the “European improvised music” that splintered off of jazz, along with his lifelong drummer Han Bennink. Mengelberg’s 1960s “game pieces” anticipate later works by his friend and benefactor John Zorn. In the 1990s ICP became increasingly recognized internationally, for its live collaging operations and Mengelberg’s elegantly witty writing. His classical works are likewise noted for fetching melodies and unpredictable developments.

The ICP Orchestra has been a household name for years. In 1967, Han Bennink together with pianist/composer Misha Mengelberg laid the foundation for this versatile orchestra, known as one of the most creative groups in modern jazz. Mengelberg passed away in 2017 and would have turned 90 exactly on this day, June 5, 2025. The ICP Orchestra still plays his music, but of course in the typical ICP style; while Mengelberg’s oeuvre is the starting point, no concert sounds the same and the orchestra members improvise in all directions. The musicians in the ICP Orchestra learned to deal with the peculiarities of timing or intonation of fellow players, how to confuse their colleagues, how to bend or undermine the music during performance. The music is full of surprises, unexpected turns, nimble grace and strange outbursts.

http://www.icporchestra.com
https://www.bimhuis.nl/icp-orchestra-misha-mengelberg-90

Gran festa questa sera per gli ottant'anni di Anthony Braxton con una serata di gala a Brooklyn NY al Roulette tra amici, colleghi, discepoli e invitati specialissimi. Champagne, Maestro!

Anthony Braxton (b. 1945), the Chicago-born composer and multi-instrumentalist, is recognized as one of the most important musicians, educators, and creative thinkers of the past 50 years. He is highly esteemed in the experimental music community for the revolutionary quality of his work and for the mentorship and inspiration he has provided to generations of younger musicians. Drawing upon a disparate mix of influences from John Coltrane to Karlheinz Stockhausen, Braxton has created a unique musical system that celebrates the concept of global creativity and our shared humanity. His work examines core principles of improvisation, structural navigation and ritual engagement - innovation, spirituality, and intellectual investigation. 

From his early work as a pioneering solo performer in the late 1960s through to his eclectic experiments on Arista Records in the 1970s, his landmark quartet of the 1980s, and more recent endeavors, such as his cycle of Trillium operas and the day-long, installation-based Sonic Genome Project, his vast body of work is unparalleled. His small ensembles of the 1970s to present day are considered among the most innovative groups of their respective eras, while his Creative Orchestra Music has brought together the varying streams of American jazz orchestras, marching bands, and experimental practices with the traditions of European concert music in a wholly individual compositional voice.

His continuing and evolving current systems of the past 15 years, including Ghost Trance Music, Diamond Curtain Wall Music, Falling River Music, Echo Echo Mirror House Music, and ZIM Music, have served as the artistic incubators for some of the most exciting artists of the current generation. 

https://roulette.org/gala

Se non ora, quando? A sentir loro - Dave Stewart e Barbara Gaskin - entro la fine dell'anno...

Dave & Barbara release their music on their own Broken Records label (distributed by Burning Shed) and perform live as a trio or quartet. Having enlisted guitarist Beren Matthews, the Stewart / Gaskin band performed successful Autumn 2018 headlining concerts in Tokyo and London, the latter also featuring master drummer Gavin Harrison. Dave, Barbara and Beren returned to Tokyo in November 2019 and emerged from lockdown with a memorable 40-year anniversary concert at London's Kings Place on Saturday July 9th 2022. Having performed three further Tokyo concerts in April 2023, the trio made a triumphant return to Kings Place Hall One on August 5th 2023. Our CDs, signed vinyl singles and Dave's Inside The Music ebooks are available from our Stewart / Gaskin online store, operated by our long-standing colleagues Burning Shed. All sales revenue goes directly to the musicians with no record company involvement. 

We're now working on an 8th album of all-new music and hoping to play a UK concert in late 2025. If you fancy seeing us live, please add your name to our Stewart-Gaskin Gig Register and we'll message you directly. Simply email us at davebarb2@gmail.com with the subject line 'Gig Register', tell us your name, country of residence (important) and how many tickets you're likely to need. You'll then be on our priority list for early bird concert alerts, preferred seating and other perks associated with our performances. Rest assured we won't share your contact details or overburden you with emails.

https://davebarb.com
https://burningshed.com/store/davebarb

Buona idea quella di Ámarxe di pubblicare anche su supporto fisico l'album Long Time Gone di Dirk 'Mont' Campbell, probabilmente il suo ultimo, diffuso qualche mese fa solo in formato digitale tramite Bandcamp. E ottima idea quella di aggiungervi un brano precedente ma inedito, La Livinière, pieno di riferimenti a Kevin Ayers e Egg (anzi, scritta proprio pensando a loro).

https://amarxe.bandcamp.com/long-time-gone

Circola da oggi la newsletter #63 di Jean-Paul Marillier che contiene il riassunto delle novità wyattiane con le aggiunte e le modifiche degli ultimi mesi negli archivi dell'impareggiabile Une discografie de Robert Wyatt, in perenne e continua espansione. C'è anche la seconda parte della selezione di cover indicate come preferite da lettori e collaboratori, tutte disponibili all'ascolto nell'inesauribile Radio Robert.

http://disco-robertwyatt.com

Fu l'ultima occasione di sentire su disco i Gong con il compianto Daevid Allen (1938-2015) e assieme a lui, nel toccante commiato di Shakti Yoni & Dingo Virgin, Gilli Smyth (1933-2016). Dopo dieci anni I See You torna in circolazione in una scintillante edizione in doppio vinile, cd e formato digitale per Kscope tratta da Frank Byng dalle registrazioni multitraccia originali. Kavus Torabi ne è entusiasta, commosso perfino: "My first album with Gong would turn out to be Daevid Allen's last, not that any of us realised it then. Work on the album had just commenced around the time I was asked to join and Daevid was in fine health but by the time we were at the mixing stage he was undergoing the intense treatment for his cancer which would ultimately prove unsuccessful. As you can imagine, the record was completed under extremely fraught circumstances, very different to the upbeat way it started. Getting it over the line was not an especially joyful process. Decisions needed to be made under a great deal of pressure and, with emotions running high, they weren't always the right ones. Nonetheless, I’m so happy Daevid got to hear it completed, that he loved it and that we got to put it out into the world. When, during his final months, Daevid expressed his desire for the band he had assembled to continue without him we felt pretty uncertain about the prospect. Yet here we are after ten years of constant touring, three studio albums (with a fourth on the way) and a double live album later, looking back at the record which launched the current incarnation of this wonderful mythology. Frank Byng’s remarkable new mix, thankfully completed without time constraints, has brought an increased sonic clarity which accentuates the eccentric psychedelic majesty of the original release. I was moved to tears hearing it. For me, this is the definitive version of I See You, the record I always hoped it would be." 

https://www.gongband.com

https://kscopemusic.com/artists/gong

Alla chiusura del celebre UFO, luogo principe della scena underground della Londra del 1967, il testimone passò al Middle Earth, anch'esso in zona Covent Garden, attivo di giorno come luogo d'incontro e di commercio alternativo e animatissimo ogni sera con le musiche proposte da John Peel e Jeff Dexter tra fumi/fiumi di incenso, vertiginosi light show e le esibizioni dei principali campioni locali e internazionali del rock psichedelico. A quella sua breve stagione, durata un paio d'anni appena, è dedicata Middle Earth-The Soundtrack of London’s Legendary Psychedelic Club 1967-1969, ennesima - e gradita - compilazione tematica di Cherry Red contenente ricordi e testimonianze di protagonisti e testimoni, documenti grafici e fotografici, note illustrative e oltre una sessantina di brani in ordine più o meno cronologico: per esempio Soft Machine, Julie Driscoll con Brian Auger & The Trinity, Chris McGregor, Arthur Brown, Third Ear Band, Blossom Toes, la Bonzo Doo Dah Dog Band e l'Incredible String Band, Traffic, Family, The Who, Yes, Ten Years After, Yardbirds, Captain Beefheart, Jefferson Airplane e The Fugs.

Scrive John Barlass per At The Barrier: "For a short while, way back then, we thought we could change the world. Our music could make the world a better place. People would hear it and become more like us, less like them. We really believed that. Trouble was, there were so many who didn’t – and never would – believe like we did; hostile market porters, voracious drug squads or people who just felt plain daft sitting cross-legged on the floor of an incense-and-dope-scented, oil-disc illuminated, low ceilinged room for hours on end. They just didn’t get it. So the revolution never happened, but we had so much fun trying to make it happen…"

https://www.cherryred.co.uk/middle-earth-1967-1969

In che modo e perché sia giunto a scegliere la voce di Robert Wyatt per alcuni momenti cruciali del suo film Fuori - al debutto in questi giorni nelle sale cinematografiche italiane dopo la presentazione a Cannes - Mario Martone lo spiega a Variety: "I never think about the music before shooting, never. I usually almost always use repertoire. And I work on it when I edit. So I started editing and I was looking for a female voice to create a sonorous off-voice, evocative of a Goliarda. But we never come across the right voice. And then, I don’t even know how, from what corner of my mind Robert Wyatt came to me. The fragility of his voice, the vitality and at the same time that sense of anxiety, that is in his songs. So I thought: who cares if it’s a male voice, it’s the voice of a soul. And it was a soul that suddenly I felt was able to have an intense dialogue with the soul of Goliarda Sapienza." Nel film, assieme alle musiche originali di Valerio Vigliar e varie altre citazioni, ci sono Memories, Blues in Bob Minor, Little Red Riding Hood Hit The Road, The British Road e Round Midnight.

https://lucysullacultura.com/appunti-su-fuori-di-mario-martone

Mary Halvorson racconta a Jazzwise della profonda importanza di Rock Bottom nella sua esperienza di (relativamente) giovane ascoltatrice prima e di musicista in proprio poi, al punto da spingerla in anni successivi a intraprendere un rapporto diretto con Robert Wyatt, seppure a distanza, sfociato infine nella collaborazione di Artlessly Falling (Firehouse 12 records, 2020).

"When you’re a teenager and you hear things for the first time they have an incredible impact; and I certainly had experiences like that at that age. But it’s much rarer that you get that kind of impact later in life; and this is one of those records for me. I say ‘later in life’ - I probably heard it when I was 27, so I was still a young person; but by that point, I’d heard so much music. It was nice to go into something with no preconceived notions; and it doesn’t happen that often, because usually you know something about whatever it is. It felt like discovering something that I couldn’t believe I’d been missing my whole life! To have that experience when I was a little older was great. I don’t know if I’d heard it when I was younger whether I’d have made sense of it? Perhaps it was the perfect time for me to hear it."

https://www.jazzwise.com/mary-halvorson

 

In versione dvd ora è pronto anche per la visione domestica Rock Bottom (2024), il film d'animazione sceneggiato e diretto da María Trénor uscito l'anno scorso giusto in tempo per partecipare alle iniziative per il cinquantenario dell'amatissimo album, ospite di alcuni festival e proiettato in alcune sale cinematografiche: "Cincuenta años después de su lanzamiento, Rock Bottom de Robert Wyatt renace en la película animada de María Trénor, una exploración visual de su universo melancólico y psicodélico. Más que una biografía, la cinta traduce en imágenes el vértigo y la belleza de un disco nacido del naufragio y la reinvención. Con rotoscopia, texturas oníricas y la música remasterizada de Wyatt, la animación se convierte en el único lenguaje capaz de capturar lo intangible."

https://www.instagram.com/maria_trenor_film
https://www.instagram.com/rockbottom_film

Nella gamma di collaborazioni e commissioni che, unitamente al proprio apporto compositivo, hanno costellato il percorso di Guy Klucevsek nella costruzione di un repertorio inedito e innovativo per la fisarmonica contemporanea spiccano le vicende con la Ain't Nothin' But A Polka Band e con il quartetto Accordion Tribe - quelle che assieme ad alcuni tour de force zorniani gli hanno forse assicurato la maggiore notorietà - ma non sono da dimenticare quelle in ambito jazzistico con le formazioni di Dave Douglas, di Michael Moore e di Bill Frisell, le esperienze di elettronica e psicoacustica con Pauline Oliveros e Alvin Lucier, le frequenti puntate nel teatro, nella danza, quelle apprezzatissime nel circo e quelle al servizio delle creazioni artistiche di Keith LoBue. Qualche episodio c'è stato anche al cinema, come voluto da Anita Blumer per Augusto Boal o da Roberta Torre per Mare nero, e da John Williams in tre o quattro orchestrazioni per Steven Spielberg. Chi è interessato alle parti scritte dei brani originali del Nostro ne trova un buon numero in Vignettes (Starkland, 2020) o al suo sito web.

https://guyklucevsek.com

Starkland, Tzadik, Winter & Winter e Intuition - ma anche Zoar, Cri, Innova e RecRec - sono i principali cataloghi da sfogliare per ritrovare le meravigliose opere discografiche lasciate negli anni da Guy Klucevsek. L'ultimo, gioiosissimo Little Big Top - registrato nell'ottobre 2023 nonostante il grave avanzamento della malattia - è uscito per la newyorkese Motéma Music e contiene tutte sue composizioni eseguite in quartetto con Volker Goetze, Jeff Hudgins e Doug Wieselman. Poco prima, in più intimo assetto di solo, duo o trio, era uscita (nuovamente per Starkland, ma solo in formato digitale) una delle sue più toccanti e personali antologie: Hope Dies Last.

https://guyklucevsek.com/recordings

Teetering on the Verge of Normalcy
(Guy Klucevsek, 1947-2025)

Sui negativi originali in 35 mm ritrovati in archivio ha a lungo lavorato Lana Topham per il restauro, probabilmente definitivo, del celebre film dei Pink Floyd a Pompei diretto da Adrian Maben e girato principalmente nell'anfiteatro romano e nei pressi della solfatara di Pozzuoli a inizio ottobre 1971, con ulteriori riprese effettuate a Parigi e Londra alla vigilia della pubblicazione di The Dark Side of the Moon. Esce in edizione completa in dvd contestualmente a una serie di proiezioni pubbliche in cinema specializzati, assieme a una versione audio, per la prima volta ufficiale, riveduta e corretta da Steven Wilson: Pink Floyd at Pompeii - MCMLXXII.

https://www.pinkfloyd.film

Perché siano rimaste cinquant'anni negli archivi senza esser mai ufficializzate lo spiega bene Joe Travers, infallibile Vaultmeister zappiano che pure non le seppe subito identificare: "I had no idea what they were or what they were for. They remained a mystery for years. The digital transfers of the elements happened over a long period of time, mostly due to budget and priority. Some were done for identification purposes while Gail Zappa was alive during the 2000s. Imagine how exciting it was for us to finally discover what this stuff actually looked like for the first time. It was a gold mine waiting to be unearthed." Sono le registrazioni audio e video, di ottima qualità entrambe, del concerto indoor che Frank Zappa fece filmare nella propria sala prove a Hollywood il 21 giugno 1974 allo scopo di poterle poi diffondere tramite le principali stazioni televisive statunitensi dell'epoca: al suo fianco aveva una delle più amate formazioni delle Mothers, con George Duke, Napoleon Murphy Brock, Ruth Underwood, Chester Thompson, Tom Fowler e il figliol prodigo Jeff Simmons. Sono ora disponibili al pubblico in varie edizioni - alcune tutt'altro che cheap - con un ricco corredo di documenti informativi, grafici e fotografici: Cheaper than Cheep.

On the first day of summer, June 21, 1974, Zappa and his band, the Mothers of Invention, invited a small audience to the their humble rehearsal hall on Sunset Blvd. in Hollywood, Calif., for what would be an intoxicating, sweat-drenched two-hour-plus performance. A small film crew equipped with multiple cameras captured every riveting musical moment while the audio was recorded by a mobile recording truck. Unfortunately, when Zappa watched the footage he was devastated to learn, that similar to his Roxy project before it, the audio and video weren’t synchronized. Two months later, Zappa would team up with the Los Angeles-based PBS station KCET and get the sought-after TV special he wanted, later released commercially as The Dub Room Special. As a result, the June concert that he planned to shop to major TV networks was shelved, never to be revisited by Zappa in his lifetime. It languished in The Vault for more than five decades. Now, more than 50 years after that magical, sweltering summer night in 1974, thanks to advancements in post-production editing tools, fans can experience the concert as if they were there in the front row.

https://www.zappa.com